


Charisma Check

by unknown_knowns



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game), Life Is Strange: Before The Storm (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, I wrote this over lunch and don't know nerd garbage help how do I write a nerd, Some humor here and there, and she's blushy, gets happier and fluffier near the end, little sad at the start, so we still have insecure chloe, takes place vaguely after BtS
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-24
Updated: 2018-01-24
Packaged: 2019-03-09 01:18:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13470663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unknown_knowns/pseuds/unknown_knowns
Summary: Chloe misundertands Rachel.And she cries.But she makes good on Steph's offer to talk about girls.And she blushes.





	Charisma Check

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WinTTY](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinTTY/gifts).



> Winnie has a crush.

Steph looked up from her book when she heard someone knocking on her door.

She frowned, a little, and checked her phone.

Way too early for Mikey.

She put her phone back into her pocket and stood up, keeping her place in the book with just one finger while she closed it.

“Who is it?”

Quiet.

“Chloe.”

And she didn’t sound very good, either.

Steph blinked, and ambled over to her door to open it, a little bit, at least.

Chloe was … Chloe.

She was kind of cool, but also kind of scary, and they weren’t that good of friends.

Especially since Rachel all-but consumed her.

Still, Steph had made the offer if Chloe needed her, she would be there for her.

So she was here, and she was opening the door.

“What’s up?”

It wasn’t too hard to figure out that Chloe was sad.

Her posture was all slumped, and her arms were crossed, and she was looking down miserably at the floor.

She sniffled, once, and looked up to Steph.

Her eyes were red and irritated – she’d probably been crying.

Steph wasn’t sure she’d ever seen Chloe cry …

It made her face pitch up in sympathy before she could help it.

“What … um. Are you doing? Can I just … crash in your room for a bit … and talk?”

Steph blinked, and looked behind herself to her room.

Chloe’s timing was good – Mikey wouldn’t be here for a while, and Steph wasn’t doing much in particular right now.

When she looked back, she just shrugged, and opened her door all of the way and stepped back.

“Just doing some reading.”

Chloe sniffled again, and brushed her way past Steph.

“Nerd …”

It sounded a little endeared, though.

It put a small smile on Steph’s face as she scoffed and closed the door behind her.

“You betcha. Now why do you sound like death?”

Chloe loomed over to Steph’s bed and collapsed down on it pathetically face-first.

Steph sighed a little.

Chloe didn’t have permission to do that, but … whatever.

Chloe’s carelessness was an endearing thing.

Steph put her book away, figuring it’d be a while until she resumed, and carefully sat down on her desk’s chair, and scooted it a bit closer to Chloe.

She stretched out her legs to place her feet on the bed, a bit shy of Chloe’s position.

Eventually, Chloe flopped around until she was laying on her back, looking up to Steph’s ceiling.

“Rachel … kind of dumped me.”

Steph blinked only a million times.

“She did who the what now?”

Chloe spared her a brief look, and she still looked so devastated …

Steph bit her lip.

“I … I thought we – Rachel and I – were. Something. More. Like … ugh.”

Chloe looked back to the ceiling.

She groaned, and raised her hands to place them tightly on her face.

Steph hesitated, but sighed, and stood up from her chair to sit down next to Chloe on the bed.

She kept her arms by her sides, but considered deploying a touch in case Chloe spiraled some more.

It wasn’t particularly easy to see her like this.

“Chloe. Calm down. Take a deep breath, relax, and tell me the full story.”

Chloe nodded miserably and peeled her hands away.

Her eyes briefly met Steph’s as she took in a wickedly deep and heavy breath, but she closed her eyes on the harsh exhale.

Chloe brought her hands over to her own belly and just folded them there, and shifted around her position very slightly to get more comfortable.

“I … these past few days, I’ve … been hanging with Rachel a lot.”

Steph nodded.

“Putting it mildly.”

Chloe sighed.

“Yeah … and um. We did some stuff … talked about some real things and … ugh. I thought she was more like … a girlfriend.”

Steph nodded again.

This all sounded more-or-less what she thought was going on, despite Steph’s crush on Rachel, it seemed pretty obvious Rachel was more interested in Chloe.

“Right. I even asked you if she was single.”

Chloe nodded barely.

“And I … told you I didn’t know, but … even more crazy shit happened after that.”

Chloe opened her eyes to meet Steph’s again,

“Crazy _gay_ shit. Like. We made out.”

Steph blinked a few times.

“Go you.”

Chloe, somehow, smirked slightly and scoffed an amused thing, but closed her eyes again and melted more into the bed.

“Yeah … it was … _awesome_ , but. I guess Rachel didn’t think it meant much.”

Steph blinked again.

“What do you mean?”

Chloe groaned.

“The making out was like … okay, Rachel wants to do something crazy, right? And I’m not really feelin’ it. She asks me what’ll take to convince me, so … I ask for a kiss.”

Steph hummed thoughtfully.

“Playing hardball, I see. Did she hesitate?”

Chloe considered for a few seconds.

“Uh … yeah. A little bit. But then she … ugh.”

Steph sighed gently and shook her head slightly.

“Oh, dear. I think I see where this is going … she sees it just as a way to convince you, you see it as romantic.”

Chloe went quiet for a while, and all of the air just left her with her next word.

“Yeah …”

Like a sigh, only heavy and pained and miserable.

Steph went quiet for a few seconds, then sighed herself.

“Guess you failed a perception check.”

Chloe groaned painfully.

“No nerd garbage right now.”

Steph just smirked, slightly, since Chloe sounded more endeared than annoyed.

“Sorry. So I’m guessing you two don’t really talk about what you two are, and you keep getting more attached, and keep reading what she’s doing as romantic … while she just sees you two as friends.”

Chloe nodded.

“Yeah …”

Steph crossed her arms, looked down, and frowned a miserable thing.

“And then … when you talk about it … she gets weirded out … or maybe a little angry.”

Another little nod.

“Yeah …”

Chloe then blinked, and looked up to Steph, though they weren’t keeping eye contact anymore.

“How did you know?”

Steph hummed thoughtfully and looked over to Chloe to meet eye contact.

She smiled, just barely.

“Been there, done that. The first girl I was really into was like that with me, but I was too scared to ask what we were and what she wanted until … way, way, way too late.”

Steph sighed and looked off to one of her walls.

“Broken heart sucks ass. Especially if it’s your first love.”

Chloe went quiet in consideration.

“How long did it take you to get over it?”

Steph scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“Like a year. But I was an idiot and kept talking to her and being nice to her and kept being reminded of my feelings. The next crush that was unrequited I cut that shit off quick and I got over it in like … a week or two.”

Chloe groaned and raised her hands up to shield her face again.

Her words were slightly muffled by her hands, but not so as Steph couldn’t understand it.

“I can’t deal with this for a whole fucking year.”

Steph smiled sadly, and moved one of her hands over to gently stroke at one of Chloe’s, sensing now she needed some measure of comfort.

The touch earned a surprised and cute jump out of Chloe, but she eventually settled down and lowered her hands.

Steph played with her hair, instead, and Chloe closed her eyes to try and relax some more.

“Maybe you’ll get over it more quickly than I did. Who knows. Girls are complicated and no one understands them.”

Chloe smirked, just barely.

She did enjoy the affection, and it did help her to relax.

“Sounds like you have a pretty good handle on stuff, though …”

Steph shrugged, and looked away to some of her posters again.

“Fat lot of good that does me. I’m still single, y’know.”

Chloe frowned.

“I don’t see how …”

Steph blinked.

Chloe didn’t just hit on her, did she?

Steph looked very carefully over to Chloe.

“What do you mean?”

Chloe opened her eyes to look at Steph, and hesitated for a few seconds.

She then groaned and sat up on the bed, so the two were sitting next to each other.

Steph just lowered her hand down to her side.

Chloe didn’t even sit right; her torso was too twisted in facing Steph.

It didn’t even look comfortable.

She was going to hurt her back sitting like that, wouldn’t she?

Chloe stretched her back out and shook her head and sighed, then leaned forward more towards the edge of the bed.

She knocked her shoes back and forth gently and placed both of her hands on the edge of the bed.

“You’re like … really helpful, and shit. I hardly even know you, and you’re playing therapist for some … worthless punk.”

Steph smiled at the genuine compliment, and crossed her arms.

She looked down for a few seconds before over to Chloe, who was still looking at her shoes and definitely not Steph.

“Thanks, Chloe. I try to make it a priority to help useless lesbians.”

Chloe scoffed.

“I am _not_ a useless lesbian …”

But the two smirked.

“Really … how’d you ask for the kiss?”

Chloe cleared her throat and looked even further away from Steph.

“Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh …”

Steph giggled.

“You couldn’t, could you?”

Chloe groaned and sat up straight – for once – and looked over to Steph.

She was blushing slightly, now, which was an odd combo with her still-irritated eyes.

“I totally could. Don’t you doubt me.”

There was bravado in her voice, and steel in her face, but … Steph wasn’t buying it.

She inched a bit closer, and her smirk got a bit wider, and Chloe started blinking a bit too much.

“Really.”

Chloe kept on blinking.

“Um. Yeah. Really. Totes.”

Steph stole one of Chloe’s hands, and could feel a little shiver.

She carefully brought it up and leaned over to kiss at it, just gently, but affectionately.

Chloe just looked at her, but her blush certainly didn’t go anywhere.

In fact, it got even worse, and she tugged the hand free to look back at one of Steph’s walls.

“Because … you’re shaking, and I’ve barely even put a little bit of moves on you.”

Chloe scoffed, but it was an awkward thing, and she rubbed at the back of her own neck with the other hand that hadn’t been kissed.

“You um, cheated.”

Steph rolled her eyes, but was grinning, now.

“Really. How’d I cheat?”

Chloe looked over to Steph.

“You uh. Got a critical success on your Charisma Check.”

Steph smiled, and giggled.

Chloe did, too.

 

Chloe suddenly stood up, and it was an energetic thing, and her body always seemed to have too much energy to contain itself.

So her arms swayed a little afterwards, and there was a slight jitter to her posture, even when she crossed her arms.

Still blushing.

“So uh. I’m going to … leave … now.”

Steph kept on grinning.

“Real smooth.”

Chloe scoffed indignantly and looked away for a few seconds.

When she looked back,

“I’m just … giving you time. To recover. And stuff. You know. That was a-uh. Hard talk. Emotional. And … _stuff_.”

Steph just grinned, grinned, grinned.

Poor Chloe, trying to hold onto her ego after being called out on being so useless.

“Uh-huh. Of course, Chloe.”

Chloe nodded.

“So … uh. Bye.”

She turned around and walked to Steph’s door, but hesitated on opening it.

She looked back.

“But we … should do this more often.”

Steph blinked.

“Hang out?”

Chloe hesitated for a few seconds, cleared her throat, and looked forward again.

“Y-yeah. That.”

She opened the door and left.

Steph just sighed contently and laid down on her bed, herself.

Chloe was pretty cute in how easily she could be turned into a blushing mess, like that …

Maybe she could see just how awfully she responded to even more moves.

And maybe with some more time around her, Steph could really see whatever Rachel had.

It couldn’t have just been the bad girl persona, right?

Maybe a mix of the bad girl and the useless lesbian.

It certainly was pretty cute to think of a big bad punk that melted from even the slightest bit of flirting …

 

Steph sighed contently, and closed her eyes.

She smiled, and thought about talking with Chloe about sex.

And how totally useless she’d be, then.

**Author's Note:**

> This is kind of a one shot, but I'm not opposed to writing a bit more if y'all like it. :)
> 
> (not going to lie I _love_ awkward Chloe)


End file.
